TEL will benefit around 100,000 households “as they are now within a 10-minute walk from one of the nine stations”.

With the first three stations of the Thomson-East Coast Line (TEL)–Woodlands North, Woodlands, Woodlands South–set to open on 31 January 2020, the Land Transport Authority (LTA) has stated that the line’s second stage is now on track to open in the later part of the year.

Comprising six stations, namely Springleaf, Lentor, Mayflower, Bright Hill, Upper Thomson and Caldecott, the LTA announced on Friday (17 January) that the second stage is about 90% complete. This includes the two interchange stations at Caldecott and Bright Hill.

“Bright Hill station will link to the future Cross Island Line, while Caldecott station will link to the existing Circle Line (CCL),” said LTA.

It revealed that it faced some challenge in installing the 1,500 secant bored piles for the Bright Hill station due to the presence of hard granite around the area.

“As the area is highly urbanised, the tunnels from Bright Hill station towards its adjacent stations required tunnelling under an existing low-rise residential building. To ensure safety, enhancement work was carried out to strengthen the building’s foundation system prior to tunnelling work,” it said.

Singapore’s sixth MRT Line, the 43km TEL adds 32 new stations to the current rail network, eight of which are interchange stations.

TEL will benefit around 100,000 households “as they are now within a 10-minute walk from one of the nine stations”.

A Sin Ming resident, for instance, will see travel time to Republic Polytechnic halved to 25 minutes from 50 minutes previously, noted LTA.

“When fully operational in 2024, the TEL is expected to serve approximately 500,000 commuters daily in the initial years, rising to about one million commuters in the longer term,” it added.